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Trials and Tribble-ations (episode)
When Temporal Investigations arrives on Deep Space Nine, Sisko recounts how he and the crew of the Defiant traveled back in time to the 23rd century to prevent the assassination of Captain James T. Kirk during the original Enterprise`s mission to Space Station K-7. Summary Teaser Lucsly and Dulmur from Temporal Investigations arrive on DS9 and are welcomed into Ops by Kira and Jadzia. The investigators ask for Captain Sisko and Kira directs them to his office. Before they go in, Jadzia cracks a joke about temporal investigators are always on time which elicits absolutely no response from the investigators and they go into Sisko's office. Sisko asks if they want anything to drink and they say they only want the truth. Dulmur asks Sisko why he took the back in time and Sisko says it was accidental and he confirms that he is not contending their trip back was a predestination paradox, a statement which relieves the investigators as they hate predestination paradoxes. When they ask him to start at the beginning, Sisko tels them this may take some time and then assures them that he's not cracking a joke which the investigators say they hate as well. Sisko tells them that the Cardassian government had expressed a desire to return one of the Bajoran Orbs that they had procured during the Bajoran Occupation, so the Defiant traveled to Cardassia Prime (under cloak to avoid detection by the Klingons) to collect it. Without knowing which orb it was or even if it were genuine, (as many fakes had cropped up over the years). Though they didn't know it at the time they recovered it, they had indeed gained the Orb of Time. Sisko had security lock the Orb in crew quarters so it could be authenticated on Bajor. Before leaving Cardassia Prime, they took on a passenger. Worf brings a man into the Defiant's mess hall and, upon seeing Miles and Julian, he expresses his relief to finally see humans again. Worf introduces the man as Mr. Barry Waddle, a human merchant who had been trapped on Cardassia when the Klingons attacked. He was an elderly, seemingly harmless man. Waddle says he deals in gemstones, mostly kevas and trillium. While he orders a raktajino from the replicator, he tells Miles and Julian about how Cardassians drink hot fish juice in the morning and that after being on Cardassia for a time, he was hoping for a Klingon invasion as they can make good coffee, even if they are foul-smelling barbarians. He then apologizes to Worf and steps away. Miles and Julian gently tease Worf about his aroma, telling him he has a rather earthy, peaty aroma with a touch of lilac. On the bridge, as Defiant is halfway back to DS9 and Sisko tells the investigators that he was finally beginning to relax, O'Brien relays the story of the incident in the mess hall to Jadzia and suggests that she mention lilac the next time she sees Worf but she refuses, saying she has her own ways of torturing him. At that moment, O'Brien announces a massive surge in chroniton radiation around the ship as the entire bridge glows brightly. The viewscreen shows nothing but white noise. The ship drops out of warp and decloaks as someone activates the transporter. Sisko orders Jadzia to get the ship back under cloak and deactivate the transporter but it's too late as the person has already left the ship. Just then, as the ship gets back under cloak, Jadzia tells Sisko that they're over 200 light years from their previous position. Sisko orders the viewscreen activated and the sight they see on the screen shocks them all as they see the ''Enterprise''. Act One In Sisko's office Dulmur asks him to specify which Enterprise as there's been five, but Lucsly corrects him, saying there's now six. Sisko clarifies that it was the first Enterprise, the Constitution class, NCC-1701. The investigators sit back in their seats at the realization and they realize it's "his" ship, James T. Kirk, which Sisko proudly confirms. The investigators call Kirk a menace, saying that there were 17 separate temporal violations and that Kirk's file is the biggest on record. They ask what the Enterprise was doing and Sisko says they were orbiting one of the old Deep Space stations, K-7, exactly one hundred and five years, one month, and twelve days previous, on stardate 4523.7, a Friday. As Sisko's story continues, we find ourselves back on Defiant, where a briefing is occurring with the senior staff. Worf and Odo have discovered that Mr. Waddle's "real" name is Arne Darvin, a Klingon surgically altered to appear human. Worf tells Sisko that the younger Darvin is at this moment on board K-7 posing as a Federation official. Odo picks up and tells Sisko that the younger Darvin's mission was to derail Federation colonization efforts in the area by poisoning a load of grain which was — or rather, is — stored on K-7. However in 18 hours, James Kirk will expose Darvin and he will be arrested. Worf tells them that Darvin's arrest ended his career as Klingon Intelligence turns their back on Darvin and he becomes an outcast, apparently spending the next hundred years posing as a human merchant and then in what Odo calls a "final indignity," he was trapped on Cardassia by the Klingon invasion. Sisko then is able to pick the story up from there. Apparently Darvin then heard rumors about an Orb capable of taking him back in time. Julian wonders if Darvin may be going to warn his younger self about Kirk, but Jadzia thinks Darvin may be planning to kill Kirk. And not knowing how or where or when, Sisko decides that they will have to search both K-7 and the Enterprise without raising suspicions or altering the time line themselves as the last thing he wants is a visit from Temporal Investigations when they get home. So the crew starts to blend in, Odo and Worf change into civilian traders' clothing and Sisko, Dax, O'Brien and Bashir all change into old-style Starfleet uniforms. Dax take the extra precaution of applying makeup to cover her spots. Stepping out into the corridor Sisko, (who is now wearing a gold Command uniform with Lieutenant's stripes), sees O'Brien in a red support uniform. He congratulates O'Brien on his temporary promotion and tells O'Brien that he went with Lieutenant ranks as he didn't want to arouse suspicion. Just then, Bashir steps out still in Medical blue with an appropriately altered hairstyle and asks if Sisko and Miles are wearing the wrong colors. Miles asks if Julian knows anything about this time period and he says that he doesn't as he's a doctor, not a historian. Dax then appears in the miniskirt uniform of the day, saying that "women wore less" and Bashir announces he's going to like this time period. In the transporter room, O'Brien reports that the old-style sensors the Enterprise used allows for tiny interruptions in the scan cycle allowing Defiant to decloak for three seconds and beam everyone to where they need to go. Worf and Odo are going to K-7. Worf reports that most of K-7 consists of storage areas and industrial fabrication facilities and since security on a space station such as K-7 isn't as tight as it would be on a starship, they don't expect to have to take too long to search the station. The others are going to Enterprise, O'Brien and Bashir together and Dax and Sisko together. After reminding everyone to do their best not to interact with people from this time period, Sisko and Dax go first and beam into a turbolift and step out into a corridor on Enterprise. Act Two Bashir and O'Brien beam into another turbolift and try to proceed to Deck 21. O'Brien's vocal command goes unheeded and not knowing what could be wrong with the turbolift, they try to take a panel off to see what's happening with a turbolift when they're interrupted by the lift's doors opening and a woman steps in, nods to O'Brien and Bashir, takes one of the handles on the side of the lift and orders the lift to Deck 15. Sheepishly, O'Brien and Bashir take hold of the handles near them and Bashir whispers to O'Brien "I won't tell anyone if you won't." Jadzia marvels as to how many people are packed into the ship. Finding an auxiliary communications juncture, Sisko pretends to do repairs and Jadzia marvels at the "classic" twenty-third century design of the tricorder she's carrying but Sisko quiets her before she attracts anyone's attention. On K-7, Odo steps into the station's bar and sits down at a table. As he does, the door opens again admitting Chekov and Uhura into the bar. As they walk up to the bar, a waitress asks Odo what he'd like to drink and he tries to order raktajino. When the waitress tells him he's the second person who ordered that today, he asks who the other one was and she says an elderly human male. She tells Odo that he said he'd probably be back later. Then, after finding out raktajino is Klingon coffee, she tells Odo they don't have any Klingon beverages and so Odo settles for Tarkalean tea. As he sits at the bar and watches, he sees Uhura obtain a tribble from Cyrano Jones. Back on Enterprise, Julian continues to scan for Darvin. O'Brien is supposed to be conducting repairs but unfortunately he can't tell what's what as everything's all cross-circuited and rewired. Bashir jokes that it sounds like one of O'Brien's repair jobs. They're then interrupted by a young engineer who wonders why they're working at that panel because Scotty told him to do it. He then wonders why they need a doctor to repair a power relay. Bashir makes up a story about checking O'Brien for stress and after O'Brien accidentally pulls out a circuit that darkens the whole deck, quickly replacing it, tells O'Brien he's seen enough and that they need to go to sickbay. O'Brien tells the engineer that he'd appreciate it if he didn't mention this to anyone and the engineer says he won't and that he hopes O'Brien feels better soon. On K-7, Worf enters the bar and sees Odo sitting at a table. Worf tells Odo he's finished searching the primary habitat levels. Before he can get any further, he notices a trilling sound and asks what it is. Odo says the sound is very soothing and he holds the tribble up as it squeals at Worf who disgustingly recognizes it. Act Three Odo has Worf sit down before he attracts any further attention. Sitting down, Worf asks where Odo got it and he tells Worf from Cyrano Jones, who said that tribbles like everyone but apparently not Worf, a feeling which Worf shares. He calls the tribble a "detestable creature," noting that feeding a tribble more than the smallest morsel will cause enormous reproduction in the tribble. Worf tells Odo how tribbles were considered mortal enemies of the Klingon Empire, which Odo is amazed to hear, finding it hard to believe that a simple tribble could be someone's "mortal enemy." Worf further explains that the empire considered tribbles to be an ecological menace and that many warriors were sent out to kill any tribbles that they could find. Once the tribble homeworld was located, a Klingon armada obliterated the surface. According to Worf, tribbles were considered extinct by the end of the 23rd century, which Odo sarcastically calls "another glorious chapter in Klingon history" and then proceeds to mockingly ask Worf "tell me, do they still sing songs about The Great Tribble Hunt?" Before Worf can say anything else, the station goes to Red Alert. The same has happened on Enterprise. Seeing everyone rush to battlestations, Jadzia asks Sisko what they should do and he says they should do the same. They find an empty turbolift and Sisko contacts the Defiant. Or at least tries to at first, as he slaps his insignia on his uniform out of habit, expecting it to be a working combadge, but after a moment of realization he pulls out the old style communicator and this time successfully contacts the Defiant. Kira reports that a Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser has dropped out of warp and is approaching the station. Recognizing something familiar, Jadzia asks Kira to identify the Klingon vessel and she identifies it as the [[IKS Gr'oth|IKS Gr'oth]]. Dax immediately recognizes it as Koloth's ship and she tells Sisko that Koloth is not here to attack. She remembers Koloth telling her about how he once traded insults with Kirk on a space station near the Federation border and how he regretted never getting to face Kirk in battle. Kira then reports that the Klingons just beamed two people to the station manager's office. Jadzia remembers one of them being Koloth and asks Sisko if they could beam over to K-7, as they know that Darvin was there a short time ago but Sisko refuses and tells Kira to contact O'Brien and have him and Dr. Bashir prepare to transport to the station. Jadzia wants to see him and laments that it's not like Koloth would recognize her but Sisko is firm. After closing the channel with Kira, Jadzia says it would have been fun, but Sisko tells her it would be too much fun. Sisko's voiceover tells the investigators that Jadzia was right and the Klingons only wanted shore leave and that Captain Kirk allowed the Klingons to beam over in small groups. Once the red alert ceased, everyone resumed their search for Darvin. On Enterprise, Kira has contacted Miles and Julian and tells them the next band shift in Enterprise's scan cycle is coming up and O'Brien tells her they'll be ready. Miles and Julian duck into a turbolift, but Lt. Watley is there with them again. She notices that Julian has left the flap open on his tricorder, thereby draining power. He closes it and thanks her for the tip. Watley asks Bashir if he's a doctor and he says he is. She says she just transferred over from the Lexington and O'Brien, acting as a regular member of the crew, welcomes her aboard. Watley tells Julian that she'll be in sickbay tomorrow at 1500 for her physical and tells him her name as she walks out of the turbolift. Julian recognizes her name as his great-grandmother's last name and wonders if it could be her, which O'Brien scoffs at as the odds of that happening are astronomical. Since no one ever met his great-grandfather, he then begins wondering if he's supposed to meet with her later in a predestination paradox and become his own great-grandfather. O'Brien accuses Julian of being ridiculous but he is beginning to convince himself that if he doesn't meet with Watley, he might not ever be born. Just then Kira calls and asks Miles if they're ready for transport and he tells her "Are we ever!" Julian says he can't wait to get back to Deep Space Nine and watch O'Brien's reaction when he finds out Julian was never born, a comment which causes a smirk from O'Brien as they beam out. Elsewhere on Enterprise, Sisko and Dax are near another panel pretending to work on it when Jadzia looks up, sees Kirk and Spock walking toward an intercom close to them, and she gets Sisko's attention. They look for a moment, but then Sisko reminds her they're just a maintenance crew doing their jobs. But Jadzia can't help but look as Kirk deals with the intercom transmission. She notes on how he's so much more handsome in person and Sisko tells Jadzia how Kirk had a reputation for being a ladies man, but she reveals she's looking at Spock instead. At that, Sisko closes the panel, takes Jadzia by the hand, and they walk away from Kirk and Spock. Jadzia is amazed that Sisko doesn't want to meet Kirk. Sisko says that's the farthest thing from his mind and they have a job to do. Jadzia then reminds Sisko about how Kirk is one of the most famous captains in Starfleet history. Sisko then admits that indeed he would like to meet Kirk. He'd like to shake Kirk's hand and ask him about fighting the Gorn on Cestus III, but that's not why they're here. Jadzia concedes Sisko's point but laments that as she remembers this time period it's hard for her to not to want to be part of it again. At that point the turbolift opens and they enter. Bashir and O'Brien enter the bar on K-7 whereupon they tease Odo and Worf for sitting at the bar while they were crawling through conduits on the Enterprise and the station. Odo says they believe that Darvin will return and Bashir picks up on the raktajino hint, a clue that others might have missed. Before they can say anything else, Chekov, Scotty and Freeman enter. O'Brien is amazed, he has mistaken Freeman for Kirk himself. Worf agrees it would be an honor to meet Kirk. O'Brien suggests buying Kirk a drink but Odo reminds them they can't and O'Brien agrees as they can't take a risk altering the time line. The waitress comes up and asks them what they want and they are to not dare ask her for a raktajino. She then points out the Klingons when Odo asks who'd order a raktajino. But they don't recognize the Klingons and they look nothing like Worf. When they act confused, the waitress decides they've had enough and walks away. Everyone at the table then looks over at Worf, wondering what's going on. Worf tells them that those are Klingons and it is a long story they do not discuss with outsiders. Meanwhile, a Klingon named Korax has spent his time loudly insulting Kirk, trying to get a rise out of the Enterprise officers. Chekov stands up to fight them, but Scotty restrains him, saying they can take a few insults. O'Brien is impressed as how Kirk is ignoring that Klingon. At that moment, a confused Bashir asks if that's really Kirk and O'Brien says it is, but then Bashir points out that the man is only wearing Lieutenant's stripes. Odo says they've got more problems at the moment than a case of mistaken identity. Just then Korax begins insulting the Enterprise, which quickly gets under Scotty's skin. When Korax claims the Enterprise should be hauled off as garbage, Scotty slowly stands up and punches him. Every Klingon and Starfleet officer stand up immediately and then, despite Odo trying to stop them, Bashir, O'Brien and Worf all stand up. Everyone ends up in the huge brawl in the bar. When the door opens to admit more Enterprise security, Odo notices Darvin in the background and knocks a Klingon off of Worf so they can both give chase to Darvin. Meanwhile, caught up in the fight, Bashir and O'Brien do not notice Worf and Odo's departure and are shortly thereafter arrested by the security officers and taken into custody along with the other crewmembers who were involved. Act Four In Sisko's office, the investigators are not happy as the regulations clearly state that Starfleet officers must take all precautions in taking minimal part in historical events. Sisko admits that they made a mistake, but it didn't alter the timeline. Dulmur isn't so convinced and tells Sisko this could be an alternate time line as far as they know but Sisko says if they had altered history they would have known when they got back. Wondering why everyone always has to say that, Lucsly asks Sisko to continue. Sisko tells them that instead of going to the brig, the arrested officers are taken in for questioning. Bashir and O'Brien find themselves in a line in front of Kirk who wants to know who started the fight. Kirk ask O'Brien who started the fight and O'Brien tells Kirk he doesn't know. Likewise, Chekov tells Kirk he doesn't know who started it. When no one confesses, Kirk confines everyone to quarters until he finds out who started it. After they're dismissed O'Brien and Bashir walk away as quickly as possible, O'Brien is astounded that of all the people in the lineup, Kirk asks him about the fight and that he ended up lying to Captain Kirk. O'Brien says he wishes Keiko could have seen it. Accidentally stepping on a tribble, Bashir wonders who left it out in the corridor alone. But rounding the corner, Miles realizes that the tribble isn't alone. Meanwhile, Odo and Worf have captured Darvin in the midst of the fight on K-7 and have beamed him back to the Defiant. Odo tells Darvin that he'll be facing some very serious charges when they return but Darvin says they won't dare put one of the greatest heroes of the Klingon Empire in the brig, to which Worf angrily tells Darvin he's no hero to the Empire. But Darvin says he will be soon and wants his statue in the Hall of Warriors to have him standing with Kirk's head in one hand and a dead tribble in the other. Worf grabs Darvin and demands to know what Darvin did. He asks if Darvin hired someone to kill Kirk or if he sabotaged the Enterprise. But Darvin says he did nothing like that but that Kirk's death will have a certain poetic justice to it. Shortly thereafter, Sisko (who is still on ''Enterprise with Dax)'' is amazed to hear from Odo that Darvin put a bomb in a tribble. Odo describes it as revenge from Darvin as it was Kirk who first noticed the tribble's reaction to a Klingon and realized that Darvin was a Klingon and while Darvin wouldn't reveal the bomb's location, he did say it would go off within the hour. Jadzia suggests they risk going to the bridge and use the internal sensors to scan the ship within minutes. Sisko agrees and orders everyone else to K-7 to search for the bomb. However Odo suggests that Worf remain on the Defiant as it seems Worf is allergic to tribbles, and Sisko agrees. However O'Brien is concerned they might not be able to reach the station's internal sensors. Sisko tells him then he will have to manually scan every tribble on the station. O'Brien, in disbelief, says there must be thousands. Bashir notes it could be hundreds of thousands but Jadzia has already worked out the number as 1,771,561, starting with one tribble, producing an average litter of ten every twelve hours over a period of three days. Sisko tells everyone they have their orders and closes the channel. Later on the bridge, Sisko is sitting at a station and Jadzia is standing over by the engineering station when Kirk comes onto the bridge. He tries to sit in his chair, but ends up accidentally sitting on a tribble in his chair. Removing the tribble Kirk looks over at Jadzia who smiles and shrugs at him. He then calls Dr. McCoy to the bridge. Jadzia steps over and tells Sisko she's reworked the sensor interface. Sisko scans the bridge. No explosives, which relieves Jadzia as she almost expected the tribble Kirk sat on to explode. Nothing on the first six decks either. Just then McCoy comes up to the bridge and begins talking to Kirk. Jadzia seems to recognize him and Sisko identifies him as McCoy, the ship's doctor. Just then, Jadzia recognizes him, having met him when he was a medical student at Ol' Miss. Sisko asks if it was Curzon who met him and she says it was actually Emony, when she was on Earth judging a gymnastics competition. Jadzia tells Sisko that McCoy had the hands of a surgeon and that she knew he'd be a doctor. Just then, Sisko finishes scanning the ship and there's no explosive. Jadzia says it has to be on K-7 then. Act Five In the bar on K-7 Odo, Bashir and O'Brien are searching through tribbles frantically when Odo gets a call from Sisko telling them the bomb is not on the Enterprise so it must be over there. Unfortunately Odo can only report they've been able to scan two decks so far. When Sisko offers to send more people over from Defiant, Odo tells him it's not a manpower shortage, but the tribbles that are multiplying so fast that they can't keep up with them. Jadzia suggests that she and Sisko stick close to Kirk as Darvin will likely have put the bomb someplace he knows Kirk will be in the next half hour and as a result Kirk may lead them right to it. Odo says they'll keep scanning the tribbles for now. Sisko and Dax get set up in the recreation room when Kirk and Spock come in. Kirk, upon ordering his chicken sandwich and coffee, sees that the tribbles are all in the food slots. Kirk tells Spock that "I want these things off the ship, I don't care if it takes every man we've got, I want them off the ship!" Scotty comes in with an armful of tribbles and tells them the tribbles are all in the machinery and probably in all the other food dispensers as well, having likely gotten there through one of the air vents. Spock realizes there are vents like that on the station and in the storage compartments. Sisko is given a clue then and he and Dax beam to K-7 and climb down into one of the storage compartments to begin scanning tribbles. Sisko notes that most of the tribbles are dead, as the grain has been poisoned. Jadzia detects a faint tricobalt signature, indicating the bomb is in the compartment somewhere. They begin scanning through the tribbles when they hear a strange sound. Turns out that's Kirk outside trying to open the storage compartments. He finally does get it open, and ends up being buried in tribbles. Sisko and Jadzia see the door open, and as it turns out, Kirk's opening the door all but exposes the bomb in the storage compartment. Jadzia realizes it's right in front of them. Sisko begins searching frantically for the bomb, tossing tribbles away as he scans them, some of them falling through the doorway and landing on Kirk. Down on the floor, Nilz Baris threatens to hold an inquiry against Kirk, stating there must be thousands of tribbles. Kirk laments it must be hundreds of thousands. Spock comes up with an exact figure of 1,771,561, using the exact formula that Jadzia had used earlier. In the hold, Sisko and Jadzia hear this, look at each other and simply shrug. Just then Sisko finds the bomb. He places the tribble bomb on his tricorder, contacts Kira and has Defiant beam the bomb into space where it explodes harmlessly. As they start to get up, Jadzia tosses the last tribble in her hand down, where it falls through the doorway and onto Kirk, causing him to ask the door to be closed. Sisko's voiceover resumes telling the investigators that after the bomb exploded history continued uninterrupted and Kirk discovered Darvin as a Klingon agent just as he had done before. And by the time they returned to the Defiant, Major Kira had figured out how to use the Orb to return the ship back to its rightful time. Back in Sisko's office, the investigators ask if that's when they returned to the future but Sisko has to admit that it wasn't and that he realized there was one more thing he had to do and it was something he'd thought of since he saw Enterprise on Defiant's viewscreen. Sisko goes to the Enterprise bridge and brings a duty roster to Kirk for approval. As Kirk looks it over he looks over at Sisko and asks his name. Sisko tells Kirk his name and that he's been on temporary assignment on Enterprise. Before Sisko left, he just wanted to tell Kirk it was an honor serving with him. Kirk smiles, nods at him and then tells Sisko "All right, Lieutenant, carry on." Sisko thanks him and leaves the bridge. Back in his office, Sisko tells Dulmur and Lucsly that if they want to put a reprimand in his file for that, then go ahead. They both stand up and tell Sisko they'll have to review everything before making a final recommendation but it doesn't seem as if any harm was done. Dulmur says he probably would have done the same thing himself. Sisko walks them out of the office and Lucsly tells them he'll have their full report in about a month but that he shouldn't have anything to worry about. Sisko admits he's happy to hear it and the investigators then quietly leave the station, heading directly for their ship at Docking Port Seven. Jadzia asks Sisko if it went well and he says it did. Kira tells Sisko that Odo wants to see them on the Promenade. Odo asks Sisko if he told the investigators and Sisko says they didn't ask and that he's open to suggestions. Jadzia quips they could build a new station. It turns out that Odo brought his tribble back with them and it has reproduced all over Quark's bar (with one even sitting on Quark's head) and tribbles all over the Promenade. Memorable Quotes "Is that a joke?" "No." "Good. We hate those, too." : - Dulmur, Sisko, and Lucsly "I wouldn't take it personally, Worf." "I rather like the way you smell." "Yeah, a sort of earthy, peaty aroma." "With a touch of...lilac." : - O'Brien and Bashir about Worf "The last thing I need is a visit from Temporal Investigations when I get home." :- Sisko "Wait a minute, aren't you two in the wrong colors?" "Don't you know anything about this period in time?" "I'm a doctor, not an historian." "In the old days, operations officers wore red, command officers wore gold, and –" (Dax enters in a mini-skirt.) "And women wore less." "I think I'm going to like history..." : - Bashir, O'Brien, Sisko, and Dax after they appear dressed in their TOS style uniforms "Chief, you're supposed to be working." "I'm afraid to touch anything. It's all cross-circuited and patched together. I can't make head nor tails of it!" "Sounds like one of your repair jobs." : - Bashir and O'Brien "Tell me. Do they still sing songs of the Great Tribble Hunt?" : - Odo, on the Klingon "battle" against the tribbles "Your flap's open." "Excuse me?" "On your tricorder, you're draining power." "Oh, yes, thank you." "He's always doing that." : - Watley, Bashir, and O'Brien "You realize, of course, she was just using you to get to me." : - O'Brien to Bashir "You know, I never met my great grandfather. This could be a pre-destination paradox! Come on, Chief, surely you took elementary temporal mechanics at the Academy? I may be destined to fall in love with that woman and become my own...great-grandfather." "You're being ridiculous!" "Ridiculous? If I don't meet with her tomorrow, I may never be born!" "Chief, are you ready for transport?" "Are we ever." : - Bashir and O'Brien (with a minor interlude by Kira) after meeting Watley again "I can't wait to get back to Deep Space Nine and see your face when you find out that I never existed!" : - Bashir, when O'Brien refuses to believe his theory "I had no idea." "What?" "He's so much more handsome in person. Those eyes!" "Kirk had quite the reputation as a ladies' man." "Not him. Spock." "Let's go." : - Dax and Sisko upon encountering Kirk and Spock "They are Klingons and it is a long story." "What happened? Some kind of genetic engineering?" "A viral mutation?" "We do not discuss it with outsiders." : - Worf, O'Brien and Bashir when the lack of cranial ridges on Kirk-era Klingons is noted (see below) "I lied to Captain Kirk! I wish Keiko could have been there to see it." : - O'Brien, to Bashir, after O'Brien told Kirk he didn't know who started the fight. "He put a bomb in a Tribble?" : - Sisko upon learning of Darvin's plan. "I don't think we'll be able to access the internal sensors on board K-7." "Then you will have to manually scan every tribble on the station." "Well, there must the thousands of them by now." "Hundreds of thousands." "One million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one. That's starting with one tribble with an average litter of ten every twelve hours. After three days –" "Thank... you." : - O'Brien, Sisko, Bashir, and Dax during the briefing about the Tribble bomb Background Information Conceiving the Episode * This episode was broadcast the year of Star Trek's 30th anniversary and was written as a tribute to the original series. * An earlier idea for the 30th anniversary episode, conceived by writer Ronald D. Moore, was to revisit Sigma Iotia II, from the episode , where we would discover imitators of Kirk and Spock, as a social commentary on the Trekkie phenomenon. However, fellow writer René Echevarria wanted to revisit a classic episode using original footage. This was made possible by recent technological innovations such as those used in the movie . * When the writers sat down to decide which episode to use, there was little question that " was one of the most famous Trek episodes, as well as an excellent choice in that it was relatively lighthearted compared to other well-known episodes such as . * In what Ira Steven Behr describes as the most massive coincidence he has experienced, Behr and the other producers were at a pizza parlor in discussing the possibility of bringing original TOS actors back for this episode when he recognized Charlie Brill (Arne Darvin). Although Behr was hesitant to discuss the matter directly with Brill due to the complications that normally entail Hollywood negotiations, Brill was greatly honored to be given a chance to make history twice and felt that Gene Roddenberry would be proud. Behr later joked that the remarkable turn of events proved God was a DS9 fan. * Ronald D. Moore commented: "My only real gripe was the music -- I had hoped it would be more like the original score and I thought it hurt the show particularly during the barroom brawl by changing the tone of the scene. Rene and I also had this idea to redo the entire end title sequence as an homage to the original series, with freeze frame shots from various DS9 episodes in the background, the TOS end credit music and changing the font of our credits to match theirs. That idea never got very far chiefly because we were the only proponents of it and also because the show was so far over budget that we couldn't afford to spend any more money anyway." http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron50.txt To date, the only episodes of a Trek show to have changed title and credit sequences for a specific episode have been and . Combining the Past with the Present * The writers were initially skeptical about whether creating an episode such as this with the relatively limited budget of a television series would be possible. However, when the visual effects team showed them a clip from "The Trouble with Tribbles," they were unable to tell that an extra person had been added to the scene because the blending was so seamless. * Contrary to the normal technique of "bluescreen" or "greenscreen" shooting, in which the new footage is shot with a blue or green background in order to allow the computer to easily place the characters into another piece of footage, the scene in which Dax and Sisko are working behind Kirk and Spock was shot with an actual set background. This was due to the fact that there was no panel for Sisko and Dax to pretend to repair in the original footage. * Creating the footage for scenes such as the fight with the Klingons took almost a full week to shoot due to the number of components involved and the complexity of staging and other minor details. Normal bluescreen/greenscreen shooting time is half a day. * Everything from the TOS sets was created faithfully right down to the blinking lights on the bridge, which the crew recreated by freeze-framing and painstakingly examining the TOS footage. * The original Enterprise, now in the museum exhibit, had been refurbished and altered slightly over the years. Knowing that fans would inspect every minor detail of this episode for consistency, the staff consulted sketches made for the original series and had a special set of plans made for the new model's construction. They even inspected it with a magnifying glass to ensure that everything was perfect. * The original model of space station K-7 had been lost by the time this episode was made. The recreation used in the new footage was created as faithfully as possible by watching the original episode as any fan might. * The clip featuring Sisko meeting Kirk was created with footage from rather than "The Trouble with Tribbles". * When Kirk opens the door to the cargo hold and is pelted with tribbles, a tribble occasionally lands on him every minute or so even after all the tribbles would have fallen out. It is in this episode that we learn the reason: Sisko and Dax are hiding in the cargo hold, scanning all the tribbles and then tossing them out the door. * Here is an example of the "Forrest Gump" technique. The first image is the original from . The second is the altered version from this episode: Image:Scott chekov freeman and kirk.jpg|The original from Image:Kirk Bashir and Obrien.jpg|The edited version for this episode Augment virus (or lack thereof) * The difference in appearance of TOS and TNG/DS9/VOY Klingons, first recognized as canon here, would later be addressed in the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes and . There was a conscious effort to keep Worf at a distance from TOS-era Klingons due to the obvious make-up differences. Ronald Moore wrote Worf's explanation (or lack thereof) into the script because he felt that there was "not a single explanation that's less than preposterous" for the make-up differences and he believed that fans could figure out why the Klingons looked so different. Bashir and O'Brien's dialogue concerning the issue had them suggesting reasons, "genetic engineering" or "viral mutation", that had long been proposed by fans as the reasons for the differences. When the "Enterprise" episodes were filmed, the final canon explanation for the difference combined both their suppositions. :For a more detailed explanation, see Klingon augment virus. Trivia * When Dulmur references the date of the original incident and Lucsly adds that it was a Friday, it is a reference to the fact that "The Trouble with Tribbles" originally aired on a Friday. * According to Dulmur and Lucsly, this episode takes place "one hundred and five years, one month, and twelve days" after the events of "The Trouble with Tribbles". * Miles O'Brien implies that the original Enterprise has 30 decks during his exchange with Julian Bashir comparing their search on the Enterprise with Worf and Odo's on K-7. * Quark appeared in this episode (memorably homaging the similar tribble covered bartender in the original episode) but Armin Shimerman has no spoken lines. * George Takei (Hikaru Sulu) does not appear in this episode (he hadn't appeared in "The Trouble With Tribbles" to begin with); this was, however, remedied by his appearance in Star Trek: Voyager's 30th Anniversary episode . * The names of the temporal investigators, Dulmur and Lucsly, are anagrams of "Mulder" and "Scully", the paranormal investigators of The X-Files, even though the former would be misspelled. * The term "D-7", in reference to the original Klingon battle cruiser, started out as an inside joke between Shatner and Nimoy. It eventually became a reference to this style of battleship, but it wasn't "official" until this episode. The designation had been used since 1979 in the game Star Fleet Battles for that particular class of ship. * It is not surprising that O'Brien believes that Lieutenant Freeman is Captain Kirk - Paul Baxley was a regular stunt double for William Shatner in the original series. * The hostile opinion Klingons have toward tribbles and Worf's story about their eradication is a metaphor for the hunting of rabbits and similar animals due to the threat they once posed to farmers' crops. * The number of tribbles that Dax calculates is the same number that Spock determined in the original episode. * Darvin, posing as Barry Waddle, claims he deals in (among other things) kevas and trillium, the two materials Mr. Spock claimed he dealt while posing as a Vulcan trader in . * Worf would later meet Scotty 101 years later in ( ). * The boots worn by Terry Farrell in the past were later reused in . * The Defiant crew bringing some tribbles back to the 24th century (and thus, repopulating the species) is reminiscent of the original Enterprise crew bringing two humpback whales with them from the 20th century into the future to repopulate the species. ( ) * Dax claims that Koloth once told Curzon that he regretted not facing Captain Kirk in battle. However, in , Koloth fights the Enterprise several times. This raises some degree of controversy given that, although The Animated Series was officially declared "non-canon" by Paramount, a TAS reference had been worked into (Edosian orchid), possibly making this claim by Curzon to be a mistake on the part of the writers. * One of the Temporal Investigations officers mentions that James T. Kirk has made "17 temporal violations". Considering Kirk went back in time on at least five separate occasions ( , and ), 17 violations seems reasonable. :Some obvious ones include, but are not limited to: ::1) Beaming aboard a 20th century earth army pilot ::2) beaming aboard a 20th century guard ::3) giving information about transparent aluminum to the Plexicorp president ::4) bringing two whales from the 20th century to save Earth from the cetation probe ::5) bringing back Gillian Taylor to the 23rd century Cast trivia * David Gerrold, writer of , can be seen in two scenes, playing an ''Enterprise crewman. He is the gray-haired man who passes Sisko and Dax when the Enterprise goes to red alert; Bashir and O'Brien later see him petting a tribble in the corridor (which, in actuality, is an original tribble used in "The Trouble with Tribbles".) Gerrold thought the episode was "one of the cleverest Star Trek scripts I've ever read". * The permission of the TOS actors had to be sought to use their performances in the various episodes the archive footage was taken from. It took the producers three months to negotiate for the use of the footage. Walter Koenig remarked he was paid "eight times more" for the use of his likeness than he was for the original episode. * Koenig himself visited the sets and showed Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig how to properly interact with the set pieces. Behind the scenes * Due to the complexities of recreating TOS sets, Herman Zimmerman nearly made a set that would have looked three-fourths the size it should have when seen through the lens of a camera. * According to Terry Farrell, it was easier to interact with stock footage than real people, due to the fact that they could watch the existing footage and observe exactly what the other person would be doing in the scene. * Jadzia Dax's enthusiasm about the 23rd century and her desire to revisit old friends was the writers' avenue by which to convey their own enthusiasm about writing the episode. It was also intended to represent the way fans of TOS would feel when watching the fusion of past and present Trek series. * When Jadzia and Benjamin Sisko enter the corridor aboard the Enterprise, the reactions from the actors are genuine, as they had not been on the set prior to that shot and were truly amazed by how faithfully the set recreated the look and feel of TOS. This technique is commonly used in Hollywood; for example, two performers whose characters will be meeting for the first time may be kept separate prior to filming in order to evoke a more genuine reaction. * The scene in which Dax is on the bridge of the Enterprise took twelve takes because of the complexity involved in the timing of the scene. * Some of the buttons (on the Enterprise control panels) in the original footage had in fact been jelly beans; in fact, at the end of filming the original episode, Shatner ate one, remarking "I've been wanting to do this for hours." * Reportedly, the DS9 stunt crew had both a challenge and a "good time", adjusting to the 'old-school' brawling style used in this episode's fight scenes. Literature * This episode is summarized in the novel ''Trials and Tribble-ations''. * A comic was released by Marvel Comics as a direct sequel to this episode, DS9 #14: "Nobody Knows the Tribbles I've Seen". The Enterprises * This is the first appearance of the actual since its destruction in ; though the bridge of the Enterprise did appear in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode , it was merely a holodeck recreation. * This episode also contains the first reference to the new , as the film, hadn't premiered yet. After Sisko mentions the Defiant was in front of the Enterprise, Dulmur tells him to be more specific, as there had been five. Lucsly corrects him and says there had been six. (NX-01 was never in Federation service) Award Nominations * This episode was nominated for the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. * This episode was nominated for three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects, Outstanding Art Direction for a Series, and Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series (which was won by ). DVD * This episode is featured in the Time Travel and Klingon Fan Collective DVDs. It is also obviously included in the DS9 Season 5 DVD set. The usual ambient sounds of Deep Space 9 Ops on the episode's menu are replaced by the sounds of Tribbles cooing. Links and References Main Cast * Avery Brooks as Benjamin Sisko * Rene Auberjonois as Odo * Michael Dorn as Worf * Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax * Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko * Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien * Armin Shimerman as Quark * Alexander Siddig as Julian Bashir * Nana Visitor as Kira Nerys Guest Stars *Jack Blessing as Dulmur *James W. Jansen as Lucsly *Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin/Barry Waddle Co-Stars *Leslie Ackerman as Waitress *Charles S. Chun as Engineer *Deirdre L. Imershein as Lt. Watley Actors Appearing in the original Star Trek episode *William Shatner as James T. Kirk *Leonard Nimoy as Spock *DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy *James Doohan as Montgomery Scott *Nichelle Nichols as Uhura *Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov *Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones *Paul Baxley as Freeman *Whit Bissell as Lurry *Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin *Michael Pataki as Korax *Guy Raymond as Bartender *David Ross as Galloway *William Schallert as Nilz Baris Uncredited Co-Stars *Mark Allen Shepherd as Morn *David Gerrold as ''Enterprise'' crewman *Eddie Paskey as Leslie *William Blackburn as Hadley *Dick Crockett as the bald Klingon *Brennan Dyson as stunt double for Michael Dorn *Brian Hite (stunt actor) References alternate timeline; Antarean glow water; auxiliary communications juncture; Bajor; Bajorans; Cardassia Prime; Cardassians; Cestus III; chicken sandwich; chroniton radiation; cloaking device; coffee; command division; ''Constitution''-class; D7 class; Dax, Curzon; Dax, Emony; Deep Space K-7; Denebian slime devil; Department of Temporal Investigations; ''Defiant'', USS; duotronics; Elementary Temporal Mechanics; ensign; ''Enterprise'', USS; ''Enterprise''-E, USS; fish juice; food processor; Friday; GNDN; Gorn; ''Gr'oth'', IKS; Hall of Warriors; internal sensors; Koloth; Klingons; Klingon battle cruiser; Klingon Empire; Klingon Intelligence; Klingon Imperial Fleet; kevas; ''Lexington'', USS; lieutenant; lilac; medical tricorder; ''Nash'', USS; navigational computer; operations division; O'Brien, Keiko; Ol' Miss; Orb of Prophecy; Orb of Time; Orb of Wisdom; predestination paradox; quadrotriticale; raktajino; red alert; sensor array; shore leave; Spacematic; Spican flame gem; Tarkalean tea; temporal violation; time loop; transporter; transtator; tri-cobalt device; tricorder; trident scanner; Trills; trillium; tribbles External Links * * |next= }} Category:DS9 episodes de:Immer die Last mit den Tribbles es:Trials and Tribble-ations fr:Trials and Tribble-ations nl:Trials and Tribble-ations